Kerala: Islamic terrorists’ own backyard in India

Kerala: Now terror’s own backyard in India

July 1, 2011

Vicky Nanjappa reports on how Kerala, populary known as God’s own country, is now a haven for hawala transactions and the perfect breeding ground for terrorists

According to the Union home ministry, the annual remittance through hawala channels into Kerala is a whopping Rs 20,000 crore. This figure tells the story of a state, which has today become a hub for extremists.

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Kerala IGP’s Islamic Terror Links

NIA Nails Kerala IGP’s Terror Links
By Jeemon Jacob
Dated 10 Sep 2011

THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency (NIA) has established that Kerala Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tomin J Thachankary hobnobbed with several persons linked to terror outfits during a visit to Doha in March 2010. The 1987 batch IPS officer has always been in the news. A report in TEHELKA (NIA probes point to Kerala as new hub of terror funds by Shahina KK, 17 July 2010) had shown the state to have a disproportionate share of six out of 14 cases being looked into by the apex agency, the most sensitive being that of ‘an IPS officer’.

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NRI Muslims financing SIMI, IM’s jihad in India

Diaspora cash fed domestic jihad

 Praveen Swami,May 08, 2009, The Hindu

Kerala computer engineer’s story casts light on Indian Mujahideen funding

 Nawaz’s journey into jihad began in SIMI’s study groups

India so far had little success in cracking down on terror financing

 

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 HYDERABAD: Late last year, four Keralites training with a Lashkar-e-Taiba unit in the Kupwara mountains, along the Line of Control in northern Kashmir, were shot dead by security forces.

And since the September shootout, the police in Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have been scrambling to unravel the threads that tied Indian Mujahideen groups in the south to each other and to the Lashkar.

But the investigations also show that the Indian Mujahideen was fed and watered by transnational financial networks: networks linked both to diasporic Islamists living in west Asia and Pakistan-based organisations like the Lashkar.

From the story of Ernakulam-born computer engineer Sarfaraz Nawaz, who was expelled by the Oman authorities earlier this year, investigators have been able to understand the relationship between domestic terror and diaspora cash.

SIMI background

Like so many Indian Mujahideen-linked figures, Nawaz’s journey into jihad began in the Students Islamic Movement of India’s study groups.

Nawaz began attending SIMI meetings in 1995, soon after he graduated from high school. He became an “Ikhwan” or full-time SIMI member within a year and by March 2000 was made a member of the now-proscribed Islamist organisation’s central committee.

Close ties

While in New Delhi, where he also served as the SIMI’s office secretary, Nawaz developed a close relationship with several key members of what would later become the organisation’s jihad faction, including Safdar Nagori, Yahya Kamakutty and Peedical Abdul Shibly.

When the SIMI was proscribed in 2001, Nawaz decided to move abroad. He first found work in a computer firm operating out of Ibra, in Oman, and later joined the Ajman-based Ibn Sina Medical Centre, which was owned by the former Kerala SIMI president Abdul Ghafoor.

Later, other SIMI contacts helped him to find a job in Dubai. Finally, in July 2006 Nawaz moved back to Muscat and began working at the al-Noor Education Trust, which offered computer courses.

Newly married and prosperous, Nawaz appeared to live the kind of quiet life most in the Indian diaspora aspire to. But the Oman authorities now believe the appearance was intended to deceive.

Soon after returning to Muscat, the investigators say, Nawaz made contact with Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, a Muscat-based businessman with substantial interests in the automobile business and the Lashkar. Hooti, in turn, introduced Nawaz to a ranking Pakistani Lashkar operative, who is so far known only by the aliases Rehan and Wali.

Funds flow

Early in 2008, the police in Hyderabad and Bangalore believe, Nawaz and Rehan met in Dubai to finalise funding for two important “projects.”

In Hyderabad, fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Tadiyantavide Nasir was preparing several Keralites to journey across the Line of Control to Lashkar training camps in Pakistan.

Safe house

Nasir used his position as an instructor at the city’s Jamia Arifiya Nooriya seminary to recruit volunteers. He set up a safe house in Madikere, near Coorg, for their basic indoctrination.

In August, 2008, Rehan allegedly provided the funds and contacts that led the first group of volunteers’ travel to Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Mujahideen units also needed funding, Nawaz was told, to execute a series of bombings in Bangalore.

Rehan and Hooti, the Bangalore police say, asked Nawaz to travel to India for an on-site briefing about these plans. Both men were evidently impressed by what he found, for an estimated 2,500 Oman Rials was despatched to the Indian Mujahideen through a Kannur-based hawala dealer.

Later, the investigators say, Dhaka-based Lashkar operative Mubashir Shahid provided more money to secure Nasir’s escape into Bangladesh and to compensate the families of the men killed in Jammu and Kashmir.

Complex web

Police officers involved in the Nawaz investigation believe that several similar funding networks fed different elements of the Indian Mujahideen.

Indian Mujahideen co-founder Sadiq Sheikh, for example, lived in Dubai for several months with the help of ganglord Aftab Ansari and his lieutenant Amir Reza Khan. During his stay, Sheikh said in a statement to the Hyderabad Police, he discovered that key Indian Mujahideen commander Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri also visited the city to raise funds.

Sheikh never met with Shahbandri’s contacts, but it seems likely that Nawaz himself was in touch with several SIMI-linked figures who were engaged in fundraising for jihadist groups. Important among them was CAM Basheer, a fugitive SIMI leader, who is thought to be living in Sharjah using fake identification.

Basheer, police sources say, visited Nawaz in Muscat at least once and carried funds intended to facilitate Nasir’s efforts to recruit jihadists in Kerala.

Maulana Abdul Bari, a Hyderabad cleric last sighted in Saudi Arabia, is also thought to have raised funds in the diaspora for the training of jihadist cadre recruited in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

A costly failure

India has so far had little success in cracking down on terror financing. Nawaz’s story shows just how expensive this failure has been and how costly it could, yet, prove.

11 Indian Mujahideen Muslims arrested with huge arms cache in Mangalore

11 IM members arrested with huge arms cache
By: J DeyDate: 2008-10-06, mid-day.com

Mumbai’s Crime Branch arrested 11 suspected members of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) on Saturday in a joint operation with their counterparts in Mangalore.

The police recovered two hand grenades, assorted weapons and Rs 11.5 lakh from them. Initial investigations have indicated that the weapons were part of the arsenal to carry out attacks in the city. Police sources in Mangalore disclosed that Riyaz Bhatkal, the key mastermind of IM, funded the money.

Following their arrest, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil held a high-level meeting at Raj Bhavan yesterday to discuss the looming threat of terror attacks in the state.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, Commissioner (special investigation department) D Shivanandan, State Director General of Police A N Roy, Mumbai Police Chief Hassan Gafoor and officials of the Intelligence Bureau and RAW.

Four of the arrested Mohammed Ali, son Javed Ali, Naushad and Ahmed Bawa have been brought to the city while the others are being questioned in Mangalore. The police are also on the lookout for two other suspects identified as Salman and Samir, who are residents of Mira Road. The duo is suspected to have sold used vehicles to terrorists.

Finance module
Bhatkal had sent around 600 men from his hometown Bhatkal in North Kanara, Karnataka, to a Gulf country for employment. In return, they sent him a whopping amount of money.

The money reached Bhatkal every month through hawala channels and was used to fund the training of sleeper modules and buy ammunition for triggering blasts across the country. Investigations have revealed that the explosives used in the New Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts were smuggled from Bhatkal.

Bhatkal, who used the code name Roshan Khan, is believed to be holed up in Pakistan.

After establishing base near Bhatkal, he formed links with terror groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria. Post 9/11, he funded hundreds of wannabe terrorists in Pakistan.